The world is finally waking up to the importance of self-care. Thanks to the self-love movement, we're now open to taking care of our mental health just as much as we care about our physical health.
And you can get started by installing some iPhone apps, enabling notifications, and tracking your habits.
1. Aloe Bud
Aloe Bud is an all-in-one self-care companion app. Pick an activity you want help with, like hydration, movement, breathing, or sleep and Aloe Bud helps you track your progress and gives you helpful advice along the way. You'll get empathetic and encouraging messages throughout the day.
If you're trying to become a better human being and you've decided to focus on particular aspects of life, being mindful of your behaviors and actions is the first step to making significant changes. Aloe Bud can help you with this and track your progress as you get better.
Download: Aloe Bud (Free)
2. Moment
Moment is a time tracking app for your iPhone. Using your location history, the app can determine how much time you're spending using your iPhone. The app gives you a detailed breakdown of which apps you're using and helps you reduce your device usage as well.
It's almost impossible to live without a smartphone, but you can make better choices about which apps to spend time in. And that's where Moment can help you out. Use the app for a couple days and you'll find out just how much time you're spending on apps like Facebook and Twitter. Then you can take active steps to reduce your dependence on time-wasting apps.
Download: Moment (Free, premium version available)
3. Grateful: Gratitude Journal
Grateful is a prompt-based gratitude journal. This simple app is a great way to inject some positivity into your daily life. The concept is simple and you can even do it with just a pen and paper: write down three to five blessings you're grateful for, every day.
The Grateful app goes a step beyond and asks you meaningful questions that will make you really think about your life.
Download: Grateful (Free, premium version available)
4. Calm
Calm is one of the best apps for mental health. It helps you live a better life through meditation, with courses for beginner to advanced levels. You'll get guided meditation courses as you start, but Calm is a lot more than that.
The app has a big audio library that will help you sleep. The app has ASMR-related content and also sleep stories narrated by some of the best-known voices today. Stephen Fry will read me a folk tale to help me sleep? Yes, please! With the premium account, you can also take courses in mindfulness and meditation.
Download: Calm (Free, subscription available)
5. Yoga Studio
If you want to live a healthier life, yoga is a great way to get there. But you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars a month going to a yoga studio.
Yoga Studio app brings all of that right to your home!
Download: Yoga Studio (Free trial, subscription required)
6. Shine Daily Motivation
Shine is a great way to get some "me time" during your busy day. Every day you'll get contextual motivational texts that will help you get through the day.
Need something more than text? Shine has an entire library of audio stories to help you out.
Download: Shine Daily Motivation (Free, subscription available)
7. Pillow
If you want to maintain a stable sleep cycle, you'll want to know just how bad your sleep habits are right now. And that's where Pillow comes in.
This beautifully designed app helps you track your sleep and gives you sleep statistics in an easily understandable way. Just put your phone next to your pillow when you sleep, and it will analyze your sleep pattern based on your movement. You can also use the Apple Watch Pillow app for better results.
The next morning, Pillow will wake you up in the 30-minute window where you're in light sleep and you'll get detailed statistics of your sleep quality the night before. If you don't want to buy a sleep tracker like Fitbit, Pillow is a great free alternative.
Download: Pillow (Free, premium version available)
8. Today
Today is one of the best habit tracking apps for iPhone and Apple Watch. Its user interface is visual and inviting. You can set an image as background and have complete control over the check-in process. The app also lets you decide which days to include for activity tracking and the number of check-ins per day.
If you're trying to take up a new habit like walking every day or meditating, Today is a great way to keep track of your progress. Once you've done the activity for a couple of days and see the visual chain in the app, you'll want to keep going.
Download: Today (Free, premium version available)
9. Stop, Breathe & Think
As the name suggests, this app wants you to take a break from your busy life and stop to catch a breath once in a while. The app takes a conversational approach to provide you with intelligent tips and get you started on the path of meditation.
You'll also get recommendations based on your mood. If you don't want to use all the suggestions, you can still use the app as a simple meditation timer.
Download: Stop, Breathe & Think (Free, subscription available)
10. Headspace
Headspace is one of the best meditation and mindfulness apps, as it perfects the art of guided meditation. Every day, you can listen to one guided meditation recording for free. You can pay a premium membership to unlock specific courses that can help you with conditions like anxiety and insomnia.
Using the free daily sessions is a great way to get started with meditation. You don't need to read a book or anything. Just do this for 10 minutes a day and you'll see a change in your behavior and thinking in a few weeks. Soon, you might start looking forward to the 10 minutes of "me time" every day!
Download: Headspace (Free, subscription available)
Next Stop? Fitness Town!
Working out, staying fit, and eating right can have a tremendous effect on your mental and physical well-being. These are also areas where your smartphone can help you get started with automated health tracking, get positive and healthy reminders to take a break, and manage your mental health with positivity. Once you start seeing your behaviors in the form of data, it becomes much easier to instill change.